AFSCME: McCain Backed Bush’s Economic Policies, Will Continue Them

by Seth Michaels, Oct 14, 2008

With the economy topping the list of the public’s concerns this fall, AFSCME is reaching out to union members with information on Sen. John McCain’s support for the Bush administration policies that led to this debacle.

The union’s new mailer, going out to 12 key states as the election approaches, highlights McCain’s support for outsourcing jobs, taxing health benefits and privatizing Social Security as examples of how the Bush-McCain agenda just doesn’t work.

Even as the financial market began a steep downturn in September, McCain repeated the Bush mantra that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” In fact, he’s been calling the economy “fundamentally strong” all year—proving how out-of-touch he really is.

For ordinary working families, the economy has been failing for a long time, as wages stagnate, jobs disappear, foreclosures rise and health care costs skyrocket. The middle class has been falling behind for far longer than the latest Wall Street crash. As the AFSCME mailer states:

Trillion-dollar corporate bailouts, the largest budget deficit in history, 760,000 jobs lost and 2 million foreclosures—how can John McCain possibly believe the economy is strong?

Don’t make excuses for him. John McCain voted with George Bush over 90 percent of the time, supporting his corporate greed, profit-at-all-costs agenda that got us into this mess. The economy George Bush and John McCain created is crushing the middle class, and it’s time we held them accountable

The economic crisis is already taking a toll on the state and local governments that carry out critical, day-to-day functions that keep our communities going. A combination of weak economic performance, tight credit markets and increased demand for public services is undermining the ability of states and municipalities to function. Members of AFSCME see the effects of this funding crisis firsthand and know the importance of turning around the economy.

A second AFSCME mailer focuses on McCain’s potentially disastrous health care plan, which would create a new tax on employer-based health benefits. Drawing on recent analysis of McCain’s proposal, the mailer says families could see an average tax hike of $2,800 under McCain’s plan.

AFSCME has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president, and is mobilizing its 1.4 million members to send Obama to the White House.

__________________________

Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

		Become a Fan on Facebook			Follow Us on Twitter			Subscribe to YouTube			Subscribe to Blog RSS

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)